In the manufacture of brassieres, it is common practice to incorporate a reinforcing frame into the surrounds of the brassiere cups. It also is common practice to form such frames from arcuate lengths of flat stock material of substantially rectangular cross-section, which are provided on their ends with protective tips of a compliant plastics material in order to resist abrasion and eventual wearing through of the fabric of the garment at the otherwise exposed tips.
Two modes of assembly of the garment are in common usage, one being to stitch the garment around the frame with the frame in situ, and the other being to first stitch the garment to provide a channel for the reception of the frame, and then insert the frame into the channel provided by the stitching of the garment.
The present invention, while of utility in the first mode of assembly, is directed more particularly to the latter mode of assembly, particularly in the case that, as also is common practice, padding material is provided within the channel for the purpose of providing softness along the edges of the frame. Commonly, the padding employed is a soft scrim of batting material having relatively little bonding and stabilization of the fibers comprising the batting, or, the padding is a strip of a soft foamed plastics material. Both such materials are readily susceptible to snagging during the insertion of the frame into the channel, particularly in the event that, again as is common practice, the tip itself has recesses extending inwardly thereof from its peripheral edges.
It is known from Schwartz U.S. Pat. No. 3,599,643 to provide garment frames with protective tips that are devoid of surface interruptions along their lateral edges, and which are thus highly resistant to snagging. This is possible in that a retaining tang formed on the end of the garment frame extends perpendicular to the plane of the frame, for it to extend into a recess formed in one of the major surfaces of the tip. This, however, requires that the tip, which is a force fit over the end of the frame, be of a thickness sufficient to completely submerge the tang within the confines of the tip, such that the tang itself cannot cause snagging. However, at the same time, the tang must be of sufficient axial extent to prevent the tip from being pulled off from the end of the frame, this in turn requiring that tang be of substantial length and that the tip be of adequate thickness in the direction of the tang and perpendicular to the major face of the frame.
A slimmer configuration of tip is taught in Schwartz U.S. Pat. No. 4,133,316, in which barbs are provided on the ends of the frame, the barbs extending laterally from the frame in the general plane of the frame.
This, however, requires that the lateral edges of the tips be interrupted by cut-outs for reception of the barbs, and in turn, reduces the resistance of the tip to snagging both during and subsequent to the insertion of the tip and frame into the channel of the garment.